A freshman college football player from Poland has died after a wrong-way car crash late on Tuesday night in Missouri.
Antoni Wrobel, an quarterback who played at Culver-Stockton College in Canton, Missouri, was identified as the sole victim in the crash.
According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol (via St. Louis NBC affiliate KSDK), Wrobel was driving southbound in the northbound lane of US Route 61 at around 11:25pm on Tuesday night.
As he was driving the wrong way, he was struck by a tractor trailer. The truck went through the median and stopped in the opposite lane as Wrobel’s car came to a rest at the median.
Missouri State Highway Patrol pronounced Wrobel dead at the scene and he was later identified by the Lewis County coroner.
Both Wrobel’s Culver-Stockton community and his community back in Poland expressed their grief in the aftermath of the tragedy.
‘We are deeply saddened to announce the passing of Freshman QB Tony Wrobel,’ the Culver-Stockton football team posted to their account on X, formerly Twitter.
‘He was a unique and outgoing spirit who had a passionate love for his teammates, football, and life itself. Please keep his family, teammates, and our community in your thoughts and prayers at this time.’
According to Polish outlet Radio ZET, the Warsaw Eagles club also expressed condolences, saying, ‘This is not how your American adventure was supposed to end.
‘It was too short… Thank you for every game in Eagles colors, for your smile, sense of humor, for amazing touchdown passes, for every game you won. Thank you for being our friend and you will always be one,’ Wrobel’s former team wrote on Facebook.
‘We will meet again to throw the ball together. You left suddenly, too soon… We express our deepest condolences to [Wrobel’s] entire family, especially his mother Ewa,’ the statement ended.
Culver-Stockton competes at the NAIA level in the Heart of America Athletic Conference.